Current product marking schemes provide only limited information about the identity of a particular package of merchandise. As a result, it is difficult, using only information on the package, to trace mass market products to a particular source. It is even more difficult to trace the path taken by a package of merchandise through the supply chain from a manufacturer, through a chain of distributors, to a retailer.
Programmable transponders, such as RFID tags, have sufficient storage capacity to uniquely identify a package of merchandise. Such transponders offer the potential of marking mass-produced packages of merchandise with unique identifiers. The ease with which such transponders can be interrogated has the potential to render practical the task of tracking a package of merchandise through the supply chain.